


Stan, Mike and Stanlon

by roobarrtrashmouth



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:41:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roobarrtrashmouth/pseuds/roobarrtrashmouth
Summary: I discuss Stan's thought processes after receiving the phone call from Mike to return to Derry.





	Stan, Mike and Stanlon

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tumblr Prompts (non-reddie)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16616990) by [tinyarmedtrex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyarmedtrex/pseuds/tinyarmedtrex). 



> After reading @tinyarmedtrex fic, Ch. 17 Canon Mike - Stanlon I felt the need to really delve into why to me Stan has to be the second most tragic (after Mike) and misunderstood character in the whole book and fandom to be honest.

I don't think Stan is a coward or really wholly afraid. Imagine this, Mike is the one making the calls. The other Losers get a call from their long forgotten best friend, sure there is guilt about forgetting him, but that's about it. No deep or loving feelings. Just the ache of suddenly remembering someone who you shouldn’t have forgotten. The memories of Mike, Derry and IT come trickling back. There isn’t a flood or dam burst of memories and emotions because there isn't a deep love attachment.

Now Mike makes the call to Stan, Mike’s one and only love. Stan at first doesn't remember him, but then memories come back. Quickfire snapshots. Memories of adventures, feelings, events, and love he shared with this man, memories he had totally forgotten. Then reality hits him. He had totally forgotten his love for Mike and memories of that love come flooding back. Along with all of those long longs happy memories come memories of the other Losers, friends he honestly didn’t even remember he had forgotten. Then come the darker memories and emotions, everything to do with IT. Add all the emotions of that sudden knowledge and you have the makings of a pretty huge life altering event taking place.

Then there is Patty. He loves Patty has for years. But there is this is sudden greater love for Mike, but pursuing that love would complicate his orderly life. Stan has always lead an ordered and orderly life, grounded in reality. That is why IT disturbed him so much. It violated his ordered reality.

Now his reality is shaken not just in one way, IT coming back like the other Losers had to contend with, but three ways. 1. IT has come back, 2. his forgotten love of Mike and that presumed betrayal, 3. his marriage to Patty and reconciling that with his suddenly returned feelings for Mike. Compound all of that with being utterly alone. Intellectually I KNOW Stan's fear is greater than the pull of Mike's love. And that makes me feel so bad for Stan, canonically and Fandom speaking, because no matter how much Patty loves him, she isn't the source of his strength, Mike and the Losers are, especially Mike and they are all so far away.

One phone call from his lost love, shattered his entire reality, what chance did he have? When those memories, good and bad, were suddenly thrust back at him, he didn't have the support system to simply book a flight and head back home. The other Losers had issues and feelings to contend with, but not the triple sudden memory dam that broke over him. He just wasn't strong enough on his own and honestly I think that the love he had for Mike may have contributed to his weakness. Therefore he chose the only logical way out that his ordered brain could see. This way he didn’t have to re-encounter IT, he didn’t have to tell Patty, the woman he honestly loved for many years, that now out of the blue there was someone else, and finally, he didn’t have to face Mike. Face Mike and apologize for forgetting him, leaving him behind, and marrying someone else.


End file.
